Book of Revelation

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SeanF1989

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How do Catholics use this book?

I have only heard the Fundamentalist Protestant versions but never Catholic. I once heard that Revelation has something to do with the Catholic Mass which I never got from reading the book.

Was St John talking about prophecy? or was it a message to Christians who were persecuted and will be in the future to never give up?
 
SeanF1989 said:
How do Catholics use this book?
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The Book of Revelation falls into the category of apocalyptic literature which, of course, is heavily symbolic and may have multiple meanings. Only a little of it has been elaborated upon by the Magisterium in an official capacity. With this in mind, there are different levels of valid interpretations of Revelation.
I have only heard the Fundamentalist Protestant versions but never Catholic. I once heard that Revelation has something to do with the Catholic Mass which I never got from reading the book.
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The book that was referenced to you was probably Scott Hahn’s The Lamb’s Supper. I highly recommend this book.
Was St John talking about prophecy? or was it a message to Christians who were persecuted and will be in the future to never give up?
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St. John seems to be addressing both. In other words, some of it probably applies to the events of his time involving the persecution of Christians, and some of it applies to events that will happen at the end of time. Some of it can also be seen as a general statement regarding the plight of Christians confronted with the mechanisms of godless tyrants throughout the ages.

For an excellent Catholic commentary on the Book of Revelation, I recommend Michael Barber’s Coming Soon.
 
SeanF1989 said:
How do Catholics use this book?

I have only heard the Fundamentalist Protestant versions but never Catholic. I once heard that Revelation has something to do with the Catholic Mass which I never got from reading the book.

Was St John talking about prophecy? or was it a message to Christians who were persecuted and will be in the future to never give up?
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Hi there Sean and welcome to the forums -

Yes, Revelation is John’s vision of heavenly worship. Read especially chapters 4 & 5 and you will see many elements of the mass.

There was a protestant pastor named Scott Hahn who had problems trying to understand Revelation, but found out about it when he walked into a mass one day. He says that he realized that he was sitting in the book of Revelation when he witnessed his first mass.

Scott Hahn wrote a book about his experience entitled, “The Lamb’s Supper.” It is a good and revealing read. I very much recommend it. It details the elements of the mass as they occur in the book of Revelation.

The early church also tells us that the events depicted in Revelation had occurred in the year 70 a.d. with the destruction of the temple, which some of them name as the official end of the old covenant. There is no way to know this for sure.

There is much more to Revelation than just that, more than I can put in this post. I’m sure more will chime in.

God bless you and again, welcome.

Subrosa
 
Like mentioned above, the book is highly symbolic, which means it can have multiple meanings, that is, be applied in various ways, like future prophecy, liturgical, historical, etc. I have not read Dr. Hahn’s book called the Lamb’s Supper, but I am sure it is very good considering I have always been blessed by his other works. I have heard Hahn discuss the book on EWTN and I don’t agree with everything he seemed to be saying, such as, what my perception was, was that he acted as if his understanding of the book of Revelation was the only correct way to understand it, and that the Church Fathers unanomously interpreted it that way. For one thing, I know for a fact that the Fathers did not unanomously interpret it the way Hahn does, I have studied the Fathers use of Revelation as well as later medieval writers on it, and they held very many different meanings themselves. You can read the footnotes of the work I did in the Aquinas Study Bible and see the wide range of interpretations among the ancients. Now, Hugh of St. Cher seems to be very close to Hahn’s ideas, which shows Hahn is in great company! But people need to understand that a liturgical understanding is not a universal thought among the Fathers. But again, that could just be a misunderstanding in my perception when I listened to Hahn talk about it.
 
@SeanF1989

Get a hold of tape series by Scott Hahn or another Catholic theologian on the book of Revelation. Your in for a treat 😃
 
1-7 Churches…

1-7 Seals. 1-7 Bowls with the 7th Seal as the 1-7 Bowls for 13.

777 x 3 = 2331; = reflexive reversed through a 0 year: 666 x 2 {1332}

2331/666 = 3.5

2331 years… + 1332 = 3333…

3 1/2 years culmination held back until the appointed time… in fulfillment of Daniel…

2331 - 323 Alexander the Great = 2008 ; + 7 = 15; + 6. 13 sign for the Bowls and Trumpets as year number for extra month.

2331/7 = 333.
 
1-7 Churches…
Click to expand...
1-7 Seals. 1-7 Bowls with the 7th Seal as the 1-7 Bowls for 13.
Click to expand...
777 x 3 = 2331; = reflexive reversed through a 0 year: 666 x 2 {1332}
Click to expand...
2331/666 = 3.5
Click to expand...
2331 years… + 1332 = 3333…
Click to expand...
3 1/2 years culmination held back until the appointed time… in fulfillment of Daniel…
Click to expand...
2331 - 323 Alexander the Great = 2008 ; + 7 = 15; + 6. 13 sign for the Bowls and Trumpets as year number for extra month.
Click to expand...
2331/7 = 333.
Click to expand...
The poster was asking for the Catholic interpretation for revelations which is mostly preterist and liturgical. As you can see from John’s writings almost all, if not all of the symbology is derived from the Jewish Tanakh or our Old Testament. The number 666 is indeed used in the old testament in reference to an act by Solomon in which he collected a great deal of wealth, followed by several other acts that were clearly sins. In other words, the mark that we are dealing with could be interpreted as “mammon” or apostasy.
 
bmullins said:
The poster was asking for the Catholic interpretation for revelations which is mostly preterist and liturgical. As you can see from John’s writings almost all, if not all of the symbology is derived from the Jewish Tanakh or our Old Testament. The number 666 is indeed used in the old testament in reference to an act by Solomon in which he collected a great deal of wealth, followed by several other acts that were clearly sins. In other words, the mark that we are dealing with could be interpreted as “mammon” or apostasy.
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Thank you Mr. Mullins!

666 were the Talents given to Solomon each year. The Parable of The Talents shows us that He gives to each of His children Gifts for the whole tithe to be brought in.

Revelation allows that someone who has wisdom may calculate the number; which was yearly and the Feast Cycle was 70 x 7 = 490.

490 x 4 = 2450; {showing 450 Paul}

If 33 + 450 = 483 with 7 years held back was given…

2450 - 483 = 1967 = {490 x 4} + 7

2450 x 7 = 17,150…

10 and 7 is written…

‘70 25’ before the flood and ~7010 BC + 2011 = ~‘16,047’ years.

17,150 - ~‘16,047’ = 1103 - 100 Abraham = 1003.
 
The Catholic church uses it in mostly a preterist view with quite a bit of liturgical symbolism in it. We get a lot of our practices directly from the language in there. From prayer to saints, to relics under the altar etc.

I would definitely read, as suggested above, ‘The Lamb’s Supper’ by Scott Hahn. It answered a lot of my questions.
 
Keep in mind as well that Revelation is at the end of the Bible for a reason.

The Bible tells a story and a full understanding of the end of the story presupposes a full understanding of everything which comes before it.

We can learn a lot from studying Revelation but much of it is incomprehensible without at least a basic understanding of the Old Testament including The prophet Daniel, 1 and 2 Kings and a large chunk of the first five books.

-Tim-
 
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